The IDF sent a few hellfire missiles into Gaza and came up with a big-time killer: Abu Samhadana of the PRC, recently nominated by Hamas to be the PA security chief. Say hello to Zarqawi when you get there, hey, Abu?

Meantime, Adloyada brings us a patented “gates of hell” quote alert:

The Zionists and Israelis have opened the gates of hell by assassinating Abu Samhadana,” said PRC spokesman Abu Abir.

“The Zionist entity and Zionist settlements near Gaza will not feel security and safety any more. Our rockets will rain into the Zionist entity and our heroes will blow themselves up among their dirty bodies.”

Funny, the BBC dropped the last half of that quote, and it’s not in the USA Today story, either. But it’s in Ha’aretz. Go figure.

In any case, Lair has a Bingo. Pizza for the IDF. If anyone is so inclined, feel free to send pizza to the IDF, or go find an American military charity to donate to. Today was a good day for the good guys.

We have Bingo!

The world reactions are streaming in. Even Kofi Annan was relieved at Zarqawi’s death.

Many in the blogosphere are piling onto Nick Berg’s father for saying this:

“I’m sorry whenever any human being dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just as my family reacted when Nick was killed and I feel badly for that.

“I feel doubly badly, though, because Zarqawi is also a political figure and his death will re-ignite yet another wave of revenge and revenge is something that I do not follow, that I do not ask for, that I do not wish for against anybody. It’s an endless cycle. As long as people use violence to combat violence we will always have violence.”

You know, the sentiment behind the line “I’m sorry whenever any human being dies” is often referenced to this quote by John Donne:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main…. Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

The above quote is used in the most extreme cases; some people insist that even Hitler’s death diminished mankind.

I think not.

It is a foolish statement. An evil man’s death diminishes nothing. His life is what diminished the human race: A life filled with evil and vile actions. Zarqawi diminished us all, not least of whom his victims.

I think the death of a man like Zarqawi improves the human condition. At the very least, it is a statement that we think people deserve better than to be beheaded and blown up by subhumans like Zarqawi and his ilk.

I know Jews aren’t supposed to rejoice in anyone’s death, not even a beast like Zarqawi. But I am glad he’s dead, and glad that seven of his lieutenants got taken out with him. His death diminishes nothing.

I prefer this quote instead:

Stan Bigley, brother of British hostage Ken Bigley, whom it is believed al-Zarqawi in September 2004
Bigley said he was glad al-Zarqawi “was off the face of the Earth, not just for Ken but for all the people he has killed,” according to the Press Association.

“Ken was just one of a multitude of innocent people killed by that man. He was a monster. Personally, I would rather have seen him captured and made to stand in the dock and face justice for what he’s done.

“But I won’t lose any sleep over him being dead. I’m not worried that he’s gone.”

Same here.

EU official: Assad losing grip on power, says Ynet.

In conversation with Ynet, senior European Union official links signs of instability in Syria to impending United Nations report on Hariri assassination

As time goes by Syrian President Bashar Assad has been getting weaker and losing his grip on power, a senior European Union official said Tuesday. Assad’s relatives and members of his father’s team of senior aides control Syria nowadays, the official told Ynet.

The instability of the Syrian regime hinges on the impending release of results of a United Nations investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri last year. Syrian official have been implicated in the plot to kill Hariri.

Is it the investigation or upcoming Mondial, the babyface is definitely losing the grip on everything. It becomes clear after a brief look at this picture.

I say it is the mustache.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Please, please, please let this be true.

June 8, 2006 — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody insurgency of suicide bombings and kidnappings, was killed in an airstrike north of Baghdad.

President Bush welcomed the news of the killing of Zarqawi by military forces in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death “is a severe blow to al-Qaida and it is a significant victory in the war on terror,” Bush said in a news conference at the White House.

“We have tough days ahead of us in Iraq that will require the continuing patience of the American people,” he said.

‘Eliminated’

Earlier today, Iraq’s Prime Minister in Baghdad confirmed Zarqawi’s death. “Today, al-Zarqawi has been eliminated,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in Arabic amid cheers at news conference this morning, with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, at his side.

Al Qaeda in Iraq confirmed the death of the group’s leader, according to an Islamist web site posting.

Call me a skeptic, but I want to see the body.

Update: Absolute, positive identification. Photo, fingerprints, positive ID. I was watching some of the news channels, and was utterly amazed at how everyone but Fox was downplaying this victory. Their dream headline: Zarqawi dead, but that won’t change anything.

Christiane Amanpour was among the wettest of blankets.

Update 2: Bill Roggio’s take on how the mission was accomplished.